Practice Squad Primer: Who's Eligible?

[flgreen]

Practice Squad Primer

 

September 1st, 2013 10:19 am 

 

 

 

Bent, TheJetsBlog.com

 

The Jets should announce their practice squad tonight, so we wanted to make a list of who is eligible and who is not. This is a complex process in some cases, but we’ve made every effort to ensure this is as accurate as possible. If you do have any corrections, please let us know in the comments section.

 

 

All rookies are eligible. Rookies released by the Jets since the start of August are Zach Rogers, Chris Pantale, Mike Edwards, Rontez Miles, Troy Davis, Dalton Freeman, Patrick Ford, Trey Gilleo, Sean Progar-Jackson, Marcus Rucker, Rahsaan Vaughn and KJ Stroud. Obviously this will apply to any rookies released between now and the start of the season (or even during the season) as well.

 

 

Any veteran that has two (or more) accrued seasons or has been active for nine or more games in their only accrued season will not qualify. This obviously includes all the established veterans that have been released: Jason Smith, Ben Obomanu, Mohamed Massaquoi, Antonio Garay, Dan Carpenter, Braylon Edwards, Billy Cundiff, Joe McKnight and Stephen Peterman. Greg McElroy and Bret Lockett also fall into this category, as does Mossis Madu because he was active nine times as a rookie.

 

 

For anyone with one or zero accrued seasons, it gets a bit more complicated, but here’s our summary of each player’s status. Players in italics have one accrued season but still qualify by virtue of not having been active for more than eight games:

 

 

Fully eligible – Pat Scales, Ryan Quigley, Joe Collins, Eric Crocker, Lanier Coleman, Tevita Finau, Junior Aumavae, Royce Adams

 

 

Eligible, but used up one year of eligibility – Michael Campbell, Chad Spann, Erik Cook, JB Shugarts, Jojo Dickson, Jacquies Smith, Donnie Fletcher, Scott Wedige, Hayden Smith

 

 

Special cases – Jordan White has an accrued season and has used up a year of practice squad eligibility. He is therefore practice squad eligible. However, he was reportedly released with an injury settlement. That would usually mean that the Jets will not be permitted to sign him until after week six. Dennis Landolt has used up all three years of practice squad eligibility so he is not eligible.

 

 

Eligible players still on the active roster – Danny Lansanah has accrued a season and used up two years of practice squad eligibility, but still has limited eligibility left (can only remain on the squad as long as there are 53 players on the roster). It appears that Graham Harrell is in the same boat. That could possibly factor into why he is still on the active roster at this stage – so that he can go onto the practice squad after the dust settles. The only other players on the roster with any eligibility left are Damon Harrison, Matt Simms and the rookies.

 

 

The Jets can sign anyone who is eligible to their practice squad as soon as they have cleared waivers, which takes 24 hours. That can, and likely will, include some players who were released by other teams.

 

 

The rules surrounding practice squad eligibility and the accrued seasons calcuation are after the jump.

 

 

Here are the NFL’s rules for practice squad eligibility lifted directly from the CBA:

 

 

 

(a) The Practice Squad shall consist of the following players, provided that they have not served more than two previous seasons on a Practice Squad: (i) players who do not have an Accrued Season of NFL experience; and (ii) free agent players who were on the Active List for fewer than nine regular season games during their only Accrued Season(s). An otherwise eligible player may be a Practice Squad player for a third season only if the Club by which he is employed that season has at least 53 players on its Active/Inactive List during the entire period of his employment.

 

( A player shall be deemed to have served on a Practice Squad in a season if he has passed the club’s physical and been a member of the club’s Practice Squad for at least three regular season or postseason games during his first two Practice Squad

 

seasons, and for at least one regular season or postseason game during his third Practice Squad season. (For purposes of this Section, a bye week counts as a game provided that the player is not terminated until after the regular season or postseason weekend in question.)

 

 

Also of relevance are the rules for calculating how many accrued seasons a player has. “Full pay status” will include time spent on injured reserve, which is why Bret Lockett and Greg McElroy are not eligible:

 

 

 

(a) For the purposes of calculating Accrued Seasons under this Agreement, a player shall receive one Accrued Season for each season during which he was on, or should have been on, full pay status for a total of six or more regular season games, but which, irrespective of the player’s pay status, shall not include games for which the player was on: (i) the Exempt Commissioner Permission List, (ii) the Reserve PUP List as a result of a nonfootball injury, or (iii) a Club’s Practice Squad.

 

 

Let us know who you’d like to see on the practice squad in the comments!